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This article draws attention to the relevance of young care leavers' exercise of agency as one possible key ingredient in overcoming barriers to engagement in work. Several previous studies show difficulties in entering adult life, both in relation to higher and further education as well as entrance into work life. The article analyses interviews with young adults from six countries, who have spent at least part of their childhood and youth in out-of-home care and the results indicate that the care leavers have the ability to make plans and set up goals for the future that they in many cases are able to achieve or at least are striving for over time. In many instances, they show a strong motivation, for example, to educate themselves pursuing their goals. To support this transition of young care leavers, it is important to listen to ‘successful’ cases such as the ones presented.

It is widely recognised that young people in out-of-home care are often involved in a complex process of culminating disadvantage and exclusion. Investing in the core ingredients of social inclusion (participation and interpersonal relationships) while still in care can counterbalance ongoing exclusion processes. In this article, we explore how early work experiences (before the age of 18) can play a role in this. Findings: A thematic analysis was performed on interview data from 74 young adults in six countries. Several elements promote community participation (gaining financial autonomy, gaining a feeling of independence, and being able to contribute as a worker) and help to develop a sense of belonging (striving for normality and building long-lasting social connections). Early work experiences also contribute to personal growth (building capabilities and shaping the future). Applications: This article highlights how early work experiences have the potential to promote social inclusion for out-of-home care-experienced young people and serve as gateway experiences for both educational and work trajectories. Entry into the world of work should not be postponed until the age of 18. Caregivers can play a role in motivating young people to work while still being in care and helping them to find a job. The experiences gained during these early work experiences can also have a place in the care process.

Based on three waves of semi-structured interviews, this longitudinal qualitative study aims to understand the transition from out-of-home care (OHC; foster care, residential care) to independent adulthood, for a group of Swedish care leavers aged 16–20 years (n = 14). What are the main patterns in their transition process? How is agency reflected in these processes? The first interview (T1) was conducted when they were all still in OHC but on the verge of leaving, the second (T2) when the majority had left care and the third (T3) when they had been out for some time. Average time from T1 to T3 was 21 months, ranging from 17 to 28 months. By directed content analysis and an abductive approach, three transitional patterns were identified: From care to societal insiders, From care to societal outsiders and From care to societal in-betweeners. These patterns were connected to different dimensions of agency. Agency with long-term goals was shown to be connected to a stable transition from care, facilitating the emerging identification as independent “insiders” of society. Agency oriented towards the short term instead seemed to be connected to unstable transitions with a growing perception of being left as “outsiders” of society. Shuttling between those agentic positions, trying to apply long-term agency but experiencing the need for instant and pragmatic decisions, implied a halted transition “in-between” OHC and independent adulthood.

The aim of this article is to account for and discuss support to young care leavers within the comparable welfare regimes of Norway and Sweden and to explore key differences between these 2 countries. This model implies that children and young people are included and entitled to support through being family members, not as independent actors in their own right. This makes young care leaver’s transition from care to adulthood problematic—as they often do not have access to family support, they may be positioned in a vacuum where they are clients neither entitled to support from the child welfare system nor supported by their families of origin. In Norway, legislators and policymakers have agreed that care leavers need particular attention and targeted support, whereas in Sweden, there has been no such agreement. However, the Norwegian system of giving leaving care services is not strong enough to provide transition support to all care leavers, even if the legislation gives stronger protection than in Sweden. The article discusses the need for targeted measures of support for a successful care-leaving process.

This qualitative longitudinal study of 20 young Swedish care leavers investigates their subjective experience of and strategies for handling adversities when being in the process of leaving out-of-home care. The empirical data is based on two sets of interviews, the first conducted at time 1 (T1) when they were still in care but the moving out process had begun, the second (T2) 6-10 months later when the vast majority had left care. The thematic analysis based on resilience theory showed that the majority of the informants over time developed process-oriented strategies, which in our categorization emanated either from the inner world of the informants (e.g. through re-framing of experiences and an emerging self-reliance) or from their outer contextual world (e.g. through a restructuring of the social network). The results are discussed from a resilience theoretical perspective in which the informants' strategies are illustrated by the conceptual pair of 'navigation' and 'negotiation', used to make sense of their inner and outer world-oriented strategies.

This paper investigates young care leavers’ expectations of their future after discharge from care. The results are based on qualitative longitudinal data where 16- to 21-year-old care leavers (n = 15) were interviewed twice, first when still in care but planning for their discharge (T1) and the second time 6–9 months later (T2). The analysis using a general inductive approach showed that their expectations were dependent on the time horizon and that there was an obvious difference between the young informants’ short- and long-term expectations. Their short-term expectations consisted of worries connected to their approaching discharge (at T1) and how to cope with challenges of everyday life after discharge from care (at T2). These results seem to echo negative outcomes shown in previous quantitative research. However, the informants’ long-term expectations provide a different picture, being mainly positive in both interviews (T1 and T2). The results are discussed from a life course perspective, where the informants’ visions of their future are framed and understood in terms of the different stages of their transition process.

The number of unaccompanied minors arriving in Sweden continues to rise. The majority are placed in residential care units. This qualitative study aims to increase the understanding given by the professionals to the concept of ‘home’ within the framework of residential care for unaccompanied young people. Data are based on participatory observations at two residential care units, followed up by individual interviews with staff. The findings confirm that the concept of home has a complex meaning involving both objective aspects such as physical buildings, and more subjective components that can be seen as state of mind. The staff's desire to offer an ‘ordinary home’ fails because of the surveillance, their dominant positions and especially due to the legal restrictions that were not initially meant for this target group. Unaccompanied young people have to be considered based on their own specific needs in order to make it possible for society to offer the most suitable care.

Building a temporary alliance – methodological issues in interviews with unaccompa­ nied minorsMany people come to Europe in the hope of nding a safe haven. Global challenges are converted into local issues. e minority backgrounds of these people are often mentioned as an important component in the understanding of those coming to Sweden. e aim of this study is to discuss methodological challenges in research about vulnerable groups, with speci c focus on unaccom- panied children and adolescents. What challenges become visible in the research process when the researcher aims to focus on the unaccompanied minors’ perspective during their initial time in Sweden? What di erent positions and roles become evident in the encounter between unaccom- panied minors and the researcher during interviews? What di erent implications may that have in relation to the research process? In the discussion, we highlight the importance of constantly re ecting on the role of the researcher as a person and the in uence it may have on the relation to the respondent, as well as the opportunities and limitations of these di erent roles in the research process and for the results.

In 2014 about 7000 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in Sweden and a great part got to stay. Thus Sweden is one of the countries receiving the highest number in Europe. Previous research have shown that individuals with out-of-home care experiences belong to a vulnerable group. Besides that, young people with a migrant background sometimes experienced exclusion and discrimination. This study aim to explore social workers’ understanding of the unaccompanied youth’s minority backgrounds in relation to the process of leaving-care. With a qualitative approach data have been collected through focus-groups at two residential care units. Within this kind of Human service organizations the staff struggle with meeting the perceived needs of the youths based on their minority background. Alongside they are trying to teach what they considered as being good Swedish practices claimed being necessary when facing life outside care. A transnational perspective prevents an understanding of the unaccompanied youth’s context as static, but promotes rather a way of relating to both the youths past and present time in order to be prepared for the future., Unaccompanied youths, Out-of-home care placements and ethnicity (diss project)

The purpose of this study is to examine young care leavers’ experiences of supportive and nonsupportive factors after leaving care. Telephone interviews were conducted with 65 young people, between 18 and 26 years old, who had left care in Sweden within the previous 3 months to 3 years. The care-leaving process was in many cases described by the young people as badly planned and compressed. Some interviewees received support from the formal network (social services, foster carers, residential homes, contact persons) for housing (37) and financial matters (36), but few received support from the formal network concerning employment (14) and education (11). Emotional support was mainly provided by partners and friends. Altogether, the results suggest that access to support is a helpful factor for young people leaving care, but also that many of our interviewees had no such access, from neither formal nor informal networks.

Preliminary and tentative conclusions concerning theoretical and methodological issues about narrative methods and their use as a research strategy for investigating and understanding the use and misuse of alcohol and drugs are presented. The treatment methods that are influenced by narrative strategies as well as this tool's limitations are noted. The article focuses particularly on approaches based on, and influenced by, psychology, sociology and social work when conducting narrative research.

This article considers different perspectives on the treatment of substance use-related dependency, focusing on the importance of a therapeutic relationship, working alliance, counseling, and the use of narrative methods. The article also discusses some unresolved critical issues concerning the possibilities and limitations of acquiring necessary knowledge about substance use-related dependency when using narrative research methods. The main conclusion is that the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client is of crucial importance for a positive outcome of treatment and that narrative methods provide a detailed empirical database for analyses of substance use-related dependency., AuthorCount:3

This article discusses different self-theoretical perspectives of the self that are of importance in the analysis of the use and misuse of alcohol and psychoactive drugs. The self-theories considered here include cognitive, psychodynamic, transpersonal, and social constructivist perspectives. A multidimensional perspective focusing on the connection between identity structures and analyzing the use/misuse of alcohol and psychoactive drugs is presented. The article argues for a self-theoretical analysis based on narrative data in order to reach an in-depth understanding of the use and misuse of alcohol and psychoactive drugs., AuthorCount:5

The article focuses on narratives of clients' experiences of using/misusing alcohol and drugs and includes comments on their therapeutic process during treatment for dependency on psychoactive drugs. It discusses the role of narratives that focus on clients' experiences of understanding the use/ misuse of psychoactive drugs, emphasizing the importance of the narratives. Narrative therapy for substance-use-related dependency is discussed. Insight into the treatment processes of dependency, based on narrative case illustrations, is also provided., AuthorCount:3

Gästredaktörskap för temanummer av Substance Use & Misuse

This chapter provides a short introduction to, and an overview for, using narrative analysis in the understanding of the use and misuse of alcohol and drugs. Important theoretical and methodological dimensions are discussed. Some tentative conclusions, limitations, and unresolved critical issues concerning the use of narrative research methods in the analysis of substance use-related dependency problems are also presented.

Gästredaktörskap för specialnummer av tidskriften Substance Use & Misuse

The main objective of this article is to investigate the extent to which youth in Sweden run away from or are thrown out of their homes. A further aim is to determine what conditions lead up to and triggers such a break-up and to see what takes place during the break-up process itself. In our results roughly one in ten of youth in Sweden (≈11%) had experienced a difficult break-up from home by running away or being thrown out. Over 30% of those placed in foster families or institutions had run away from home or been thrown out. By our results, only a minority of runaways do so for the excitement or the fun. The majority made clear that their running away was a flight from the family rather than to something exciting and adventurous. It is also obvious from the results that young people who have run away three or more times are more severely at risk than those who have experienced only one or two break-ups from home. For some of these young people, a breakaway from home is the start, however premature, of an independent adult life. This vulnerable group of young people should be entitled to support from the social welfare system during their transition to adulthood.

In western societies, there is a general tendency towards a protracted transition to adulthood for young people, who thereby may become increasingly dependent on support from family. Young people leaving a placement in out-of-home care often lack such support, and will thus have a disadvantageous position compared to their peers. With the purpose of looking into the procedures when young people leave a placement in out-of-home care, telephone interviews were performed with 111 managers of social service units in two Swedish regions (West Sweden, and Stockholm Region), using a structured interview schedule. Answering rate was 99.1%. Only 6% of the managers had information of the young people's whereabouts once they had left care. 86-88% had general support programmes for all young people concerning housing, employment etc. but only 2-4% had specific programmes for young people leaving care. A majority of the managers were attentive of the difficulties the young people leaving care may encounter, but displayed little awareness of the consequences of a prolonged transition to adulthood, and the need for continued support after leaving care. Several managers referred to the general support of the Swedish welfare state, meaning that young people leaving care had the same access to support as all other young people in Sweden. Consequently, young people leaving care are at risk of being invisible in the welfare system and facing a compressed transition to adulthood.

I den här studien undersöks ungdomars uppbrott i form av att de rymmer och/eller blir utkastade hemifrån. Det är den första nationella kartläggningen av sitt slag. Studien avser att ge en bred bild av problematiken med unga som rymmer och/eller kastas ut hemifrån. Ett övergripande syfte med den här studien är att kartlägga hur vanligt det är att ungdomar i Sverige rymmer och/eller kastas ut hemifrån. Ytterligare ett syfte är att undersöka de omständigheter som kan utlösa och ligga bakom uppbrott hemifrån och vad som händer ungdomarna under tiden för själva uppbrottet. Denna studie visar att det är vanligt förekommande att ungdomar är med om uppbrott hemifrån. Att så många som 11 procent av alla ungdomar har rymt och kastats ut hemifrån kan vid en första anblick verka vara en hög andel. Men vid närmare eftertanke förefaller resultatet vara lågt räknat. Att en så stor andel av ungdomarna som går i gymnasiet har erfarenhet av uppbrott hemifrån är allvarligt och ger en viktig signal om att uppbrott hemifrån är en vanlig utväg och överlevnadsstrategi för ungdomar som lever i en riskfylld uppväxtmiljö och har negativa relationer till sina föräldrar.